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The contract for the CCTV scheme has been awarded to a company called Baydale Control Systems Ltd, which will install the cameras at priority locations over the next 12 months following analysis and wider consultation.

The ones earmarked for Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford, said Mr Llywelyn, should be in place by the end of September.

“The quality of these cameras are much higher than previous ones; the quality of images will be superior,” he says.

Ideally, he said, the cameras will deliver better evidence, leading to “better justice outcomes” and a speedier flow of cases through court.

“CCTV is only part of the policing armoury,” he added. “It needs to be used in conjunction with traditional forensics and investigative opportunities.

“From an evidence and resource point of view, the evidence base (for CCTV) is a bit mixed if I’m honest.

“But anecdotally, and from a professional point of view, CCTV is used widely in investigations. It is also a great deterrent for town centre disorder and therefore reduces the fear of crime.”

Violent crime, he added, is on the rise in Wales and England, and he feels it is useful to have a wide-angled view over a large and disparate force area.

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The CCTV project will cost between £1m and £1.5m depending on whether more cameras are installed at a later phase.

He said officers will be able to monitor their local camera from their handheld devices and use footage to help provide evidence.

Mr Llywelyn’s considered opinion on CCTV harks back to his former life in the same headquarters in 2001 when he joined the force as a statistician after a completing a business management and informatics degree followed by a stint at Sony.

From statistician he became a criminal intelligence analyst in the CID department and then principal analyst overseeing a team.

He has given evidence at crown court, helped in major investigations, and written strategic documents.

In 2014 he had a change of career and became a lecturer in criminology at Aberystwyth University.

Two years later he strongly felt he could give Mr Salmon a run for his money.

He said: “I felt I could be a positive influence and a positive difference on the way Dyfed-Powys Police was being operated.

“The previous commissioner had different views on a whole host of things to me.”

He refers to some negative press coverage and goes as far as to say: “I wanted to come in and put things right, if I’m honest.”

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Mr Salmon said he was "extremely proud of the work we achieved for the residents of Dyfed-Powys during my term".

He added: "We got more officers spending more time on the beat despite Government funding cuts.

"Crime and antisocial behaviour fell thanks to the great work of those officers. And I managed to reduce the cost to local residents."

He said he was "privileged" to have served for four years and added: "I wish Dafydd all the best with his plans.”

Meanwhile Mr Llywelyn appointed a new chief constable, Mark Collins, in December 2016. Deputy chief constable Darren Davies began his role the following month.

“We have got a completely new leadership, which I think is a positive thing,” said Mr Llywelyn.

Evidence for improvement, he said, had been shown by improved ratings in recent inspections by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Mr Llywelyn also pledged to hold public meetings, keep local stations and offices open, ensure frontline policing is resourced, use specialist units to deal with organised crime, and target reckless drivers to protect all road users.

On the plus side, he said, officer numbers have edged up and currently stand at just over 1,200 — backed up by 148 community support officers.

He says he has listened to the concerns of the agricultural sector, launched a rural crime strategy and prioritised resources accordingly.

And the hardest pledges to deliver?

Road safety and police funding, according to the 41-year-old.

On the latter, he says: “The foundation of everything that we want to achieve is funding. We have been getting ‘flat cash’ settlements from the Government — the only way to maintain provision is to increase local taxation.”

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Mr Llywelyn said the budget for this year was £99.1m, a rise of £2.5m from the previous year.

“But we have lost around £20m since 2012,” he said. “There is an efficiency plan but we have not been given a (savings) target."

Asked what he felt the force did well, he replied: “I think we are still a community-based police force, which is not true of a lot of forces.

"We were deemed to be the force that people have the highest confidence in the whole of England and Wales.

“Potentially we let ourselves down when we have contact with the public in investigations.”

A new volunteer-run service called Goleudy has been set up to improve contact with those affected by crime.

Mr Llywelyn said Dyfed-Powys was not immune to the “County Lines” phenomenon, whereby gangs from cities such as Liverpool courier drugs into towns and rural communities many miles away.

A long-running, multi-agency operation busted such a conspiracy which flooded Llanelli and Aberystwyth with heroin and cocaine respectively.

Several leading figures, plus the downstream dealers and couriers, were jailed at Swansea Crown Court in March this year.

Ryan Kenny - the ringleader of a drugs conspiracy brought down by Operation Ulysses, who was sentenced in March to 14 years in prison.

Tragically the court heard that 38 people in Carmarthenshire, mainly Llanelli, died of heroin-related deaths during the 42-month period in question.

Two years previously another gang with a Liverpool ringleader was taken out following Dyfed-Powys Police’s Operation Phobus.

“We want to make Dyfed-Powys an inhospitable place for these people,” said Mr Llywelyn.

“We have got a serious organised crime team and we now have scheduled ‘drug’ days of action in each of our counties, doing warrants and targeting individuals.”

Is there an argument for decriminalising some substances to free up police time?

Mr Llywelyn, of Llandysul, treads carefully. “The short answer is ‘no’,” he replied, although he feels the use of cannabis for medicinal products is “fine”.

He said the language and semantics around cannabis decriminalisation and legislation can be divisive and added that Dyfed-Powys Police focuses resources on suppliers not people caught in possession.

In other matters the father-of-five has a follow-up report coming up concerning the fallout from a rave in the Brechfa Forest in May, which was reportedly attended by up to 4,000 people.

He says: “With a few days we held a meeting there — people were unhappy with the response of the police in the first instance.”

He added: “I am a bridge between the community and the police service.”

Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn at his desk

What are Police and Crime Commissioners and what do they do?

Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) were elected for the first time in England and Wales in 2012 and again in 2016.

Their job is to hold the chief constable and the force to account.

Commissioners set the force’s budget, determine the precept, and set police and crime objectives.

Police authorities, which were made up of councillors and co-opted independent members, used to oversee their local force before 2012.

The average turnout for the 2012 PCC election was just 15%. It increased to 26% four years later.

The turnout in Wales in 2016 was significantly higher — 49% in Dyfed-Powys, where Dafydd Llywelyn was elected, and 42% in South Wales, where Alun Michael was re-elected — possibly because they coincided with Welsh Assembly elections.

PCCs often represent political parties but must swear an oath of impartiality when they are elected to office. They cannot tell police how to do their job.

Mr Llywelyn stood as a Plaid Cymru candidate and said it would have been disingenuous not to having been a Plaid supporter all his life.

He said the party supported powers being given to the Welsh Assembly to govern the country’s police forces but added that the party network had been very helpful in delivering election leaflets.

“Plaid were instrumental in my win as a commissioner — I am sure other candidates would say the same,” he said.